The movement for African American reparations is gaining momentum. For decades, Black people have demanded compensation from the U.S. government and corporations for the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow apartheid.

In July, the bourgeois media ran a number of stories recognizing the growth of the reparations movement. The sudden reparations interest was sparked by the recent apologies by the Moravian and Episcopal churches for their participation in the slave trade. Both churches owned slaves. The Episcopalians also launched a national probe into church slavery links to determine whether the church should compensate Black members.

The church apologies followed on the heels of a June recommendation by an official North Carolina commission, which stated that reparations should be paid to the descendents of victims of the brutal seizure of the Wilmington local government after a white supremacist-led coup unseated the Black government in 1898. The defeat of the elected city government of Wilmington marked the end of all gains by Blacks during the period after the U.S. Civil War, called the Reconstruction Period.

The Wilmington commission report came weeks after the Organization of American States requested information from the U.S. government about a 1921 race riot in Tulsa, Okla., in which 1,200 homes were burned and as many as 300 Blacks killed. An OAS official said the group might pursue the issue as a violation of international human rights.

The modern reparations movement revived an idea that’s been around since emancipation, when Black leaders correctly argued that newly freed slaves deserved compensation.

These admissions, reports and other recent revelations highlight a very important issue in the fight for reparations and racial equality—the central role of the heinous, destructive and murderous capitalist system.

Capitalism built by genocide and slavery

Marx described capitalism at the dawn of its existence as a system that came into the world with blood dripping from every pore. He was referring to the role of the African slave trade, the genocide of Indigenous peoples in the Americas and the colonial enslavement of whole peoples as the precondition for the original accumulation of capital.

At least 12 million Africans were taken to the Americas as slaves. The current economic system in the United States was built largely on the backs of slave labor. Major banks and corporations that participated in the genocidal slave trade still exist in some form today. They reaped enormous profits from engaging in this inhuman practice.

Corporations like CSX, Fleet Boston, Aetna, and JP Morgan Chase, all were started with profits reaped from exploiting slave labor. CSX is the present permutation of a company that used slave labor to lay railroad tracks. Fleet Boston—now incorporated into Bank of America—is a bank that was founded by a slave trader. Aetna and JP Morgan Chase made millions insuring slaves as the property of their masters.

Universities like Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Virginia also profited from slave labor.

It is not only specific companies or schools that owe reparations; the U.S. government must pay as well. Slave labor built the White House. The so-called "founding fathers" of America owned slaves. For nearly 100 years, the U.S. government and their capitalist partners reaped massive profits dripping with the blood of African slaves.

This article is great, because it names real benefactors of slavery. If there ever comes a time when testimony has to be given before congress concerning reparations for slavery, the do-do is going to hit the fan. Old money, might acquire the name "tainted money" instead. We'll never know how deep this really goes. Once the money started rolling in from slavery, a lot of people put aside their morals to partake in the practice for profit.

I am a capalist because of the good it has done for the world after the fact of slavery. There really is no turning back from it. Every nation has benefited from American slavery. This country got so rich, we even started sending money to foreign countries in the form of aid. Now we have to see what the government and others think about reparations as it applies to the descendants of slaves a century and half later. I think they will award something nominal to get the subject off the table, money from reparations will not begin the heal the wounds or erase the memory.

Let's not go out and attack white people, because most of their ancestors didn't oarticipate in the barbarism. I've visited the black wax museum in Baltimore on ocassion, and observed white people passing out from the stress of reliving some of what happened during that time. It was a real sad time in human history.

Respectfully, I think we would be fools to expect to be rewarded with anything. Not to mention this is a debtor nation. There is no money to give.
In fact, I agree with the numerous scholars who maintain that there is enough debt to ensure americans remain slaves well into the future of our offspring.
Besides, receiving "reparations" suggests that all is repaired and money will fix everything.
Pardon me please, but they can personally kiss my ***.

There are plenty of avenues available to get to college if you're broke. Believe me I know... College isn't for everyone, and shouldn't be the only means to make a decent living for yourself and family.

I can't imagine taking up a fight like reparations. Almost kinda silly to me. But if you gotta have them, subsidies for things like housing, healthcare and childcare would be prime.